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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Help me out, sewing friends—if you had a daughter, and that daughter was obsessed with LEGOs, and you wanted to make her an amazing birthday dress for her LEGO-themed birthday party that was inspired by LEGOs but not LITERALLY a LEGO dress (i.e. not "licensed product" looking) and that she could still wear later... which would you make?

I am still undecided, but I have two favorites. I'm hoping to create the Legodots with fabric paint and a hand-carved stamp to make them look more organic. The girls or block cityscapes would be appliqué and embroidery. I considered making fabric on Spoonflower but wanted to do something more handmade here.

The patterns shown are:

The Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress: made and blogged and still worn constantly... but I'd have to grade up because she is outgrowing the largest size in the envelope I have.

I already picked up the yellow and blue fabric—if I went with a four-color option I'd have to purchase red and green. I'm thinking those four-color options are a little garish anyway? I generally avoid combining primary colors, but I felt like it wasn't going to evoke Legos without that bright blue and bright yellow.

Here were my original hand sketches with crappy highlighters when I first came up with the idea:

I'm thinking a matching block-themed headband and/or hair barrettes are also in order.

Which one would you make?

P.S. Part of me is very tempted to make myself a Lego-evoking dress as well using the Tilly and the Buttons Coco pattern as my blank canvas... but obviously the girl's dress is higher priority. I may just end up wearing some me-made Lego-esque jewelry or whatnot (like felt rectangles with six circles embroidered on them on a necklace).

Well, they're all pretty darn cute, but I really like the bottom left building and the bottom, second from right grid and dots. The lego girls are pretty good too... I don't know how you're going to make this decision!

Oooh, tough!! I think if I were you I'd go simpler and do the lego pockets. You know she'll adore it and it will be a lot faster than applique. And remember, you don't have much time! So no need to be overly ambitious.

You are so right. I bet that would be one of the simplest to execute. The party is in a month and there is so much else going on. HRMMM... I think I need to play with the pocket size and placement, too. Not sure if the angled pockets would be very practical.

The block cityscape with the sun (oh how I love that sun!!) just screams Lego girl to me! Heck, I would wear that dress! You could probably very easily do the shapes as an applique and then draw the lines with a fabric marker and it would be easy and girly and very Lego-y! Good luck!

Yes, exactly. That one was intended to be a raw edge applique with either fabric paint or machine embroidery, like this tutorial from Oliver + S. The other ones are mostly stamping with hand-carved foam stamps... the lego girls would be appliqué.

What a brilliant idea - I'm sure your daughter will be thrilled :) I love the pockets too and the buildings on the bottom row. Definitely only 2 colours, really makes an impact. The lego figures are amazing but it will give you so much to do.Can't wait to see it :)

Love the cityscape sundress but the brick pockets are just going to be so cute and useful. Great ideas all round. I've used Spoonflower and made many LEGO shirts and a dress for wearing to our city's annual Brickvention. Dress link here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/79480359@N03/8344569303/